Cuttings remover for shortwall mining machines



Feb. 18, 1947. I' .1.- s. BEL-rz 2,415,986

CUTTINGS RMOVER FOR* SHORTWALL MINING MACHINES Filed sept. 1o, 1945 Patented Feb. 18, 1947 CUTTING REMVER FOR SHORTWALL MINING MACHINES John S. Beltz, Columbus, Ohio, assignor, by mesne assignments, to IThe Jeffrey Manufacturing Company, a corporation of Ghio.

Application September 10, 1945, Serial No. 615,443

1 Claim. i

This invention relates to a mining machine of the short wall type.

An object of the inventionis to provide such a machine with an attachment, or with an integral part thereof, which will remove the cuttings along one side of the main frame, conveying it from the front. of the machine to the rear thereof.

Other objects of the invention willappear hereinafter, the novel features and combinations being set forth in the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawing,

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a mining machine incorporating the features of my invention;

Fig- 2 is a side elevational view of the machine of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged combination sectional and plan view of a portion of the mining machine, with parts omitted, showing the relative positions of the cuttings remover and the cutter chain.

The mining machine of my invention is built up from a shortwally type of mining machine, preferably of substantially standard construction, and the shortwail type mining machine illustrated, except for the cuttings or bugdust remover, follows the disclosure of Levin Patent No. 1,891,561, dated December 20, 1932, entitled Coal cutting machine.

Briefly described, the basic machine includes a main frame Iii which at its center is provided with an electric motor il having a drive shaft i2 which extends both forwardly and rearwardly. At its rear end the drive shaft I2 drives a pair of clutch controlled cable drums i3 and It which are pro-vided with individual operating clutches controlled by separate operating handles I5 and I5, respectively. The drums I3 and Ill carry cables il' and I8, respectively, which provide for handling and feeding of the mining machine in a manner well understood in the art.

The forward end of the shaft IZ- is provided with a pinion i9 which drives a large ring gear 2U which in turn drives a vertical shaft 2i through a jaw clutch, not illustrated but disclosed in full detail in the above mentioned patent. Shaft 2| is rigidly connected to and drives a sprocket 22 which in turn drives an endless cutter chain 23 provided with kerf cutting bits 24. Chain 23 is supported on and travels about a flat forwardly extending cutter bar 25 which is preferably fixed to the main frame l0.

As disclosed in full detail in the above mentioned Patent 1,891,561, the head end of the mining machine is also provided with a sprocket 25 fil.

which is driven from the gear 20, and sprocket 26 is employed when the mining machine is mounted o-n its transportation truck to drive the wheels thereof, thus providing for propelling the ymining machine and truck from place to place on the mine rails.

I have added to the basic machine above described a cuttings removing device or gummer or bugduster which is very simple in construction and which derives power from the already available sprocket 2G so that the cuttings removing mechanism may be readily attached to previously constructed machines of the general type above mentioned.

The cuttings removing mechanism includes a gear box or housing 21, the top plate 28 of which is welded or otherwise rigidly attached to the head section of the main frame i9. Gear box 2l encloses a horizontalv transversely extending shaft 29 which is mounted in spaced bearings and projects laterally fromsaid box 21. On its outer end the shaft 29 is provided with a driving sprocket 30 which is driven from the previously described sprocket 2B by a chain 3|. The chain 3i is preferably readily disconnectible so that the sprocket 26 may be used either to propel the transportation truck for the mining machine or to operate the cuttings removing mechanism after the machine has been removed from the truck and is ready to perform a kerf cutting operation.

Mounted on the previously described shaft 29 is a bevel gear 32 which meshes with and drives another bevel gear 33 which is keyed to and drives a generally longitudinally extending screw conveyor 34, the rear end of the shaft o-f which is mounted in a bearing 35 hanging from a plate of the main frame I0.

As clearly illustrated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 of the drawing, the axis of the screw conveyor 34 is horizontal and is in a vertical plane which is generally longitudinal but makes a slight angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the mining machine, diverging slightly as it travels rearwardly.

It is to be noted that the conveyor 35 is positioned laterally of an upright plate `31S forming one side wall of the main frame I Ii and forming what in effect would be one' side wall of a trough through which the cuttings are conveyed by the screw conveyor te, the bal-ance of the trough being formed by the mine floor over which the machine slides and loose cuttings or other material which will build up on the outside of the screw conveyor Si. It is furthermore to be not- 3 ed that adjacent the rear end of the screw conveyor 34 and diverging from the wall 36 is a deector plate 31 which will deflect the cuttings around the side of the cable drum I4.

In the operation o the device the cables will be in the positions illustrated in Fig. 1 of the drawing and the machine will -be fed in an upward direction, as viewed in said Fig. 1. The cutter chain 23 will be driven in a counter-clockwise direction. The cuttings which are conveyed rearwardly by the chain 23 and bits 24 will be thrown laterally downwardly, as viewed in Figs. 1 and 3 of the drawing, as the chain 23 reverses its direction of travel in traveling around the sprocket 22. In other words, the chain 23 and 'bits 24 will feed the cuttings into the path of the screw conveyor 34. Screw conveyor 3 will be rotating continuously with the cutter chain 23 and will rotate in a direction to convey the cuttings, gum or bugdust to the rear along one side of the main frame ii! as represented particularly by the wall 38.

It is to be noted particularly that the cuttings are thus delivered behind the mining machine with respect to its direction of travel, since the machine under the conditions described will be moving upwardly, as viewed in Fig. l of the drawing, while the cuttings will be delivered adjacent the bottom and the left hand end of the machine, as viewed in said Fig. l. As a consequence, the machine will always be moving away from the cuttings and in addition the cuttings will be delivered to the rear end of the machine as viewed from the working face; in other words, at the end opposite that where the kerf is being cut. As previously mentioned, this cuttings remover is well adapted to be attached to previously built machines, including by way of illustration, but not limitation, that disclosed in Levin Patent 1,891,561. It may, of course, also be incorporated in a newly constructed machine.

Obviously those skilled in the art may make various changes in the details and arrangement of parts without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as denned by the claim hereto appended, and I therefore wish not to be restricted to the precise construction herein disclosed.

Having thus described and shown an embodiment of my invention, what I desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

A shortwall type kerf-cutting machine including a main frame, a cutter bar connected thereto and extending permanently forwardly therefrom, a cutter4 chain on Saidcutter bar, means for driving said cutter chain including a motor on said main frame, a cutter chain driving sprocket forwardly of said motor and at the rear end of said cutter bar about which sprocket said cutter chain extends and reverses its direction of travel, means for receiving cuttings from the cutter chain as it travels around said sprocket and for conveying it rearwardly along one side of said main frame, said means including a longitudi--.

nally extending screw conveyor, and means for driving said screw conveyor from its front end including drive gearing common with the drive means for said cutter chain.

JOHN S. BELTZ.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record ln the iile of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,626,132 Davis Apr. 26, 1927 2,298,392 Lindgren Oct 13, 1942 1,891,561 Levin Dec. 20, 1932 2,268,269 Mavcr ec. 30, 1941 1,600,245 Pray et al Sept. 21, 1926 2,281,382 Pray Apr. 28, 1942 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 545,718 British June 9, 1942 

